Heidegger and ethics is a contentious conjunction of terms. Martin Heidegger himself rejected the notion of ethics, while his endorsement of Nazism is widely seen as unethical. This major new study examines the complex and controversial issues involved in bringing them together.

By working backwards through his work, from his 1964 claim that philosophy has been completed to Being and Time, his first major work, Joanna Hodge questions Heidegger's denial that his enquires were concerned with ethics. She discovers a form of ethics in Heidegger's thinking which elucidates his important distinction between metaphysics and philosophy. Against many contemporary views, she proposes therefore that ethics can be retrieved and questions the relation between ethics and metaphysics that Heidegger had made so pervasive.

'This is a courageous book which, in many ways, breaks new ground. Hodge is bold enough to reach into the hornet's nest of political recriminations and to retrieve the 'Heidegger case' for reflective inquiry.' - Political Studies

'An invaluable contribution to Heidegger scholarship.' - Womens Philosophy Review